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Creating a Django Site With User Authentication

This tutorial explains how to create a Django web application with user authentication, including public and restricted areas, user creation, login, password reset, password change, and user removal.

Prerequisites​

  • Python installed (>= 3.8)

  • Django installed (>= 4.x)

1. Setting Up the Django Project​

  • Install Django
pip install django
  • Create the Project
django-admin startproject mysite
cd mysite

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  • Create the App
python manage.py startapp accounts

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  • Add the app to INSTALLED_APPS in mysite/settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'accounts',
    'django.contrib.sites',
]
  • Also, set the LOGIN_URL and LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL in settings.py
LOGIN_URL = '/accounts/login/'
LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = '/restricted/'

2. Create the User Authentication Views​

  • Define URLS in accounts/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from django.contrib.auth import views as auth_views
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('signup/', views.signup, name='signup'),
    path('login/', auth_views.LoginView.as_view(), name='login'),
    path('logout/', auth_views.LogoutView.as_view(), name='logout'),
    path('password_reset/', auth_views.PasswordResetView.as_view(), name='password_reset'),
    path('password_reset/done/', auth_views.PasswordResetDoneView.as_view(), name='password_reset_done'),
    path('reset/<uidb64>/<token>/', auth_views.PasswordResetConfirmView.as_view(), name='password_reset_confirm'),
    path('reset/done/', auth_views.PasswordResetCompleteView.as_view(), name='password_reset_complete'),
    path('password_change/', auth_views.PasswordChangeView.as_view(), name='password_change'),
    path('password_change/done/', auth_views.PasswordChangeDoneView.as_view(), name='password_change_done'),
]
  • Create views in account/views.py
from django.contrib.auth.forms import UserCreationForm
from django.shortcuts import render, redirect

def signup(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = UserCreationForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            form.save()
            return redirect('login')
    else:
        form = UserCreationForm()
    return render(request, 'registration/signup.html', {'form': form})

3 Templates​

Create the templates in the accounts app mysite\accounts\templates.

4. Restricted Area​

  • Protect views by adding @login_required in the view.py
@login_required
def restricted(request):
    return render(request, 'restricted/restricted.html')
  • Create the restricted page \mysite\accounts\templates\restricted\restricted.html
<h2>Restricted</h2>
<p>This is a restricted area only logged in user can access this page</p>


<form action="{% url 'logout' %}" method="post">
    {% csrf_token %}
    <button type="submit">Logout</button>
</form>

5 - Testing​

  • Start the server
python manage.py runserver
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